Helmet Bowl Champions

Helmet Bowl I

In 2017, Helmet Tracker created and sponsored the first National football helmet championship. We started a contest with 76 football conferences and 777 football teams. On January 8th, 2018, we crowned the first national helmet champion, Gallaudet University. It was a fun and exciting contest. There are not too many places you can see a DIII school destroy a famous DI school, every team is on a level playing field.

It's a great come from behind victory and a great story. Trivia – Gallaudet invented the “Huddle“.

Helmet Bowl II

For the second year in a row, Helmet Bowl Championship honors went to a Division III school from the East. In 2017, Gallaudet staged a nearly-unbelievable come-from-behind victory to win Helmet Bowl I. In 2018, Dickinson lead from the start and won every match up with ease, bar one (looking at you Lafayette Leopards!). In the final match up against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, they jumped out to a strong start, then built on it throughout the week to finally win 76% to 24%.

“While you never know until the last vote is counted, from the beginning we knew the Helmet Bowl competition was ours to win,” said Red Devil football Mom and Helmet Bowl cheerleader Robyn Porter. “The football team, Dickinson, and the parent group came together like a well oiled machine and stuck with a winning strategy to be victorious.”

Robyn Porter with Bryce Baylor (#22), and her son Jack (#18) at the Dickinson rivalry game, 2018.

Robyn, whose son Jack plays receiver for the Red Devils, said the National Championship represents a new, victorious future for Dickinson football.

“Winning this Championship goes to show Dickinson’s Red Devil Football team is a force to be reckoned with–both on and off the field. Not only do we have the best looking helmet in the nation, our team has a very bright future.”

Helmet Bowl III

The Nebraska Kearney Lopers outdistanced the Louisville Cardinals to claim the Helmet Bowl III National Championship.

Congratulations to the Lopers!

The Lopers, the only college football team named after antelopes, become the first DII Helmet Bowl Champions and the first non-DIII Champions of Helmet Bowl. They defeated the Cardinals by a percentage score of 67 to 33 percent to claim the trophy.

Lopers Triumphant

“The news this week that we were in the championship spread like wildfire,” said Tanner Drews, the Loper's Equipment Manager.

“The local news helped us out, then the alumni started hearing about it,” he said. “It's pretty cool when you come from a small school like this and now live in California or the East Coast and hear about Nebraska Kearney. They jumped on board.

“I've got a lot of thank yous to hand out to everyone here in Kearney, too,” he said. “It just goes to show that the support of your fans and community really does matter.”

Students at UNK returned for classes today and there was excitement on campus.

“They were coming in for the first day back and they were amazed!” Tanner said.

In the end, the Lopers gathered about twice the votes during championship week than the Helmet Bowl II Champion Dickinson Red Devils, but about half as many as the Helmet Bowl I Champion Gallaudet Bison.